Subscribe to this blog

SUBSCRIBE BY EMAIL

Search This Blog

Meat Fruit is NOT a Double Entendre

So this morning, Foodepedia published their review of Heston Blumenthal's new restaurant Dinner. Like every other review under the sun, it focused on Blumenthal's signature starter Meat Fruit, but not in a way you might expect.

I've screen-grabbed the piece as it was first published above, but the writer Nick Harman seemed to think it would be amusing to suggest that "Meat Fruit" was in fact the name of a gay man with a sidekick called "Bull Dyke".

A few of us on Twitter and in the comments on Foodepedia objected to this cheap and childish homophobia, and its derision of the efforts by local authorities to teach and inform.

Rather than apologise, Foodepedia's response was to align itself with Jeremy Clarkson (a figure notorious for his unreconstructedviews) and to insinuate that we just didn't get the joke. See screen-grabs below - the equivalent of a big f*ck you.

And when we expressed disbelief at this Twitter response and their amended review, they actually enquired if they should reinstate the original text.

So why are we getting so worked up about this?

"These are just words", said one critic;

"There are better things to get angry about", said another;

"It's political correctness gone mad", said a third.

NO. This is not just a case of political correctness.

These kind of comments, published in a forum which people will take seriously, are an example of the type of insidious and invidious homophobia which pervades the world and needs to be held up as intolerable.

To suggest that such words have no effect or power is naive and dangerous.

Accepting this kind of language breeds contempt, prejudice and hatred.

Accepting this kind of language means somehow in 2011 Clintons thought it would be okay to sell a greeting card where a superhero called "Batty Boy" wears a pink frilly costume just to sledgehammer the "humour" home.

And of course, now I come to think of it, Paki and nigger are just words too, right? Right?

Because casual homophobia isn't the only form of stealth prejudice polluting this world.

There's AA Gill with his casual racism evinced by references in restaurant reviews to "Chinky takeaways" and latterly his slightly more subtle, but equally hateful, "round-eyedWesterners".

We get it, Adrian. You're round-eyed, because us Orientals are slitty-eyed. Hilarious.

Or what about Frankie Boyle and his entire career taunting disabled people?

"Don't be so over-sensitive - we're just having a laugh".

Just because they're not actually hanging homosexuals or wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood, it doesn't excuse this behaviour.

And Hanlon's Razor ie the argument that the words come from stupidity rather than malice is no excuse either - the effect is still the same.

It is not funny or clever to pick on people for being different. It's lazy and bullying. It can cause people to become withdrawn, depressed, even suicidal.

All of this is why we have to make a stand and object.

The first few years of secondary school, there was a group of boys who would constantly yell "Currant Bun" at me because I had a "brown face and little black eyes". They made me hate them and worse, I'm ashamed to say, hate my own skin.

Eventually I got my eldest brother to have a word with one of them. The next day they all stopped.

Comments

There's a lot of this about at the moment. I cannot stand Clarkson and his Top Gear middle-aged cronies deriding anyone who isn't like them. I totally agree with Coogan who called them bullies.

And recently in the Sunday Times, AA Gill described a tomato sauce at Kopapa as being "a single mother’s quick pasta" and that REALLY upset me. I am the child of a single mother who was a wonderful cook and the insinuation is that single mums are somehow crap cooks or too busy to make good food. Does he realise how difficult it is to be a single mother? And anyway HOW DARE HE!!!

And I'm not gay but I don't think there's any place for casual comments that make anyone feel bad about who they are.

It's not political correctness, it's living in a society where everyone is valued for their own worth, and where those who have a voice do not use it to deride those without.

Well put. It was a weird, gratuitous general insult to include in the review. An oafish, mean-minded comment typical of a bar bully who dares you to disagree with him and then gets all huffy and offended if you do ("Get a sense of humour, love!").

As you said, an example of a pervasive, almost unconscious homophobia that lets people think they can pick on someone and expect the mob to gather round to point and spitefully laugh. Not nice.

Someone put Stewart Lee's piece on Top Gear up on twitter today (can't remember who) which is a clever and none too subtle reminder as to why we could do well to choose our words carefully when making a joke. The same applies to Nick Harman and here is the link http://tinyurl.com/4meouzo (well worth watching)

MiMi, I always new you were awesome but this just shows me you're even more awesome than I thought.

Thank you for this, and thank you for actually standing up and pointing out what was wrong. If it wasn't for this post I actually would have missed the whole thing as I've been off Twitter most of the day, so especially thank you for highlighting this in a much more public forum.

Important and well said. That he did this in attempt to look clever and just to get a cheap laugh is despicable. And shame on Foodepedia for giving him a platform to parade his ignorance and prejudice. They are unfollowed on all social media, and form here on in, unread by me.

And as for the critic who said "These are just words" - really? They really think that's an appropriate response? As you quite rightly point out words can be painful, and can cause real harm.

Very eloquent and restrained; can't believe you managed to write it without swearing. Thanks.

A friend of mine refers to such misinformed language and behaviour as 'casual racism' or for this example 'casual homophobia'.

I do wish that people were just a little more thoughtful and nicer. It's really not that difficult!

Sometimes I do also wish that people dropped the 'casual' nature of their beliefs. Not nice, but at least then I would know where they stood... The casual nature of any anti behaviour is, in my opinion, always more hurtful than outright statements.

Well said. There are still certain types of discrimination that seem to go widely uncontested: homophopia and sexism are two examples. Sexist or homophopic jokes are rarely challenged and we shouldn't stand for it. The Sky Sports debate raged recently over what would have been a given if the butt of the "joke" had been prejudiced against because of race... (I'm thinking of Ron Atkindson: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2004/apr/22/football.raceintheuk).

Homophopia and sexism should be considered just as heinous as any other form of discrimination.

The suggstion that all members of a particular group possess characteristics or abilities specific to that group (particularly to distinguish it as being inferior to another group) is both pathetic and absurd (and should be treated as such).

Well put. What I don't understand is why currently there's an almost backwards mentality in humour. Move forwards, people! There's no need to insult people to be funny - and I don't mean tease gently but lately there's been some very mean things said indeed.

Great blog post, MiMi. There's no such thing as an 'unworthy battle', and people who don't have to live with homophobia themselves certainly don't get to dismiss anything as unimportant. Same goes for any other type of discrimination.

How on earth are we supposed to tackle institutional discrimination, malicious misinformation, violence, intimidation, kids being tormented to the point of suicide if we don't challenge the so-called 'small stuff'? At any rate, a professional (haha) site like that using homophobic slurs is hardly small. None of it is. It just shows how far we still have to go.

Now. Having a somewhat twisted brain I will admit to giggling to myself at the meat fruit name, but that was it. A small 'fnar' IN MY HEAD. After that I though 'what's so weird about meat and fruit? Eh?"

BULL DYKE??? I...words fail me. That is an old, old term, and it is a very derogatory one. In fact, these days, I only hear it used in the lesbian community, and then it's usually someone talking about themselves. Don't get me started on 'Lipstick Lesbian'.

I fit into quite a few minorities in various ways and there really is no need to use that kind of language.

It's deemed okay to do it about yourself, but that is as far as it goes.

Attitudes like this really sadden me. Insults and debasement veiled as jokes with the implication that if you don't get the joke there is something wrong with you. People pushing back will change things one day, bit by bit. Well done x

Well done. You have my absolute support on this. I am horrified by such casual stupidity and brutality passed off in the name of humour. It makes the world a smaller, meaner and a nastier place. It denigrates not just the recipients but every one of us - we are made the poorer. Bad cess to them.

Really well said, MiMi - thank you for stating so lucidly what so many of us think.

It's one thing (and not a good one at that) to publish such a nasty little piece of writing in the first place. But absolutely bloody outrageous to try and defend it and turn it back on those who said "no, this is NOT acceptable and it's not funny".

That catchphrase from when I was at school comes to mind. "It's not big and it's not clever".

OK... i'm going to put a great big spanner in the works here and say that the first time I read about 'Meat Fruit' I sniggered to myself in a 'Carry-On' type way and thought about how, probably, un-intentionaly funny that was and did they realise when naming the dish that gay men would think it was funny... I am a proud gay man and was not offended in any way by the foodepedia article... am I wrong?

and whilst I totally agree with you Meemalee that there are certain words that are offensive and should never, ever be used... there are still appropriate times and places to be silly and I think comparing the 'N' word with this is very dangerous... but that's just the Meat Fruit in me talking ...

@Dom @ Belleau Kitchen - No spanner at all - certainly many gay men use the word "fruit" in relation to themselves quite happily.

But I'm kinda surprised you say you're not offended by the article, since (read as a whole), I'd say the text is openly homophobic - the use of "meat fruit" in conjunction with the pejorative term "bull dyke" implies the overall intention is to insult, and the references to "young adults" and "life choices" seem to be clearly contemptuous.